Last updated on August 4th, 2023 at 04:38 pm
Pranab Mukherjee, who passed away in the year 2020, was born on 11 December 1935. He was the former President of India. Mukherjee had a long and distinguished political career spanning five decades during which he assumed various roles in the government and his party, making him a stalwart of Indian politics. He was known as the ‘Man for All Seasons and was the point person of the Congress party in matters of politics as well as governance. His authority on parliamentary procedure was well-known, and he was a five-time member of the Rajya Sabha and was elected twice in the Lok Sabha.
Mukherjee, died on August 31, 2020, after brain surgery. He also tested positive for COVID-19. In honor of his birth anniversary, we remember some interesting facts about his great personality.
– Mukherjee was born in 1935 in Mirati, West Bengal, India. Kamada Kinkar Mukherjee, his father, played an active role in the Independence movement. Post-Independence, he served as a representative of the Indian National Congress in the West Bengal Legislative Council.
– Mukherjee worked as an upper-division clerk in the Office of the Deputy Accountant-General in Kolkata in the early stages of his career.
– In the capacity of an assistant professor, he taught political science at Vidyanagar College.
– The Bangla Congress was founded in 1967 by Mukherjee, starting his political career. He formed an alliance called the United Front against the Indian National Congress. He became a member of the Rajya Sabha for the first time on a Bangla Congress ticket in 1969.
– As the Bangla Congress merged into the Indian National Congress in 1972, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi brought Mukherjee into the grand old party.
– Mukherjee appointed Manmohan Singh to be the Governor of the Reserve Bank of India when he was the Minister of Finance.
– In 1986, Mukherjee founded the Rashtriya Samajwadi Congress after being sidelined in the party following the assassination of Indira Gandhi. INC merged with the RSC three years later.
– In 2018, he became the first former President to attend a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) event, where he talked about the values of inclusion.
– After the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks, Mukherjee played an active role in mobilizing world opinion against Pakistan.
